CousinAmy

That tagline in the intro - "I have a girl brain in a boy body" - is that something a kid would say or something an adult would come up with? I wonder just how much her mother has been manipulating her child from her earliest days? I'm not saying she forced Jazz to be transgender, but she seems to have encouraged it. Michaela is in the show because she can read lines convincingly and can help to provide a bridge to other parts of the story. I'd say she's the most polished performer on the show - kind of a relief from Jazz's whining. I'm so cynical tonight.

When Victoria and Albert were snuggling in the cottage, halfway dreaming about never going back, the writer seems to have forgotten that they have children. They are written as two young livers, meanwhile, isn't there half a football team waiting for the?em back in the nursery? (I have no idea how many children they have at this point.) Also, everyone was pretty casual about the QUEEN OF ENGLAND who's gone missing! One would think there would have been a greater effort put forth to find her and Albert.

Our Albert looks like a callow youth compared to the real man. I think the part was terribly mis-cast. And Victoria doesn't seem to have aged at all after her pregnancies. I'm OK with that, because Jenna is just luminous. But Albert? Nope. I wonder if Matt Smith would have made a better consort for Jenna/Victoria?

I think grandfathers (and grandmothers) get an automatic pass. They aren't required to be anything but lovable, and if they say something untoward, remember they are from two generations back, and likely haven't updated their parenting style in 20+ years. (My grandfathers were born in the 19th century, 1880s and 1890s; one died long before I was born and the other when I was a toddler.) I still think Jazz's grandparents speak from a place of love, even though they may not always say the right thing. Unless the grandparents' lines are scripted? Grandpa just happened to make a quip that became the title of the episode? Jazz just happened to wear that particular T-shirt that inspired Grandpa's quip? It's all fake?

You can't force anyone to lose weight, join Weight Watchers, or even go to therapy. Right now those are Jazz's choices. I wonder if she will be able to wheedle Dr. Marci to do the surgery anyway? This is a TV show with a storyline, a storyline which is now hurtling full-speed ahead towards gender confirmation surgery. Would they have to drop the storyline if she can't meet the requirements, or drop the requirements?

Homeschooling means both Jazz and Jeannette will be home more, leading to more time to film. Perhaps the seasons will be longer? It's probably more convenient for the producers (and isn't that what really matters?)

I was engaged at 19 and married at 20 (1969). I know it sounds absurd now, but it was very common among my college friends to get married either in college or right after graduation. We were already in marriage counseling before the year was up. (We made it to 3 years; if we had had children we probably would have stayed married longer. I'm so glad we didn't.) 20 is so young to make such a huge decision. I can't imagine anyone is all that mature at 20. Like Charles and Diana, neither of us had had a full time job! (My fiance got his Masters in the summer, got a job by October, rented an apartment in November, and had a huge wedding in December.)

But this is the storyline of the show. They have 40 minutes to tell a story so every conversation has to refer back to her trans issues.

Well, he had to have someone who was not very experienced, and it was getting hard to find a suitable young lady. He played around for too long - should have gotten married, sired the kids, and carried on a decade earlier.

So after her divorce she needed to become a nun? Devote herself to her children and charity work? Don't most young women have a sex/romantic life after divorce? Her affairs were made public, most "unfamous" women do thesame, you just don't know about them.

But Jazzz doesn't seem to have sexual feelings at all. Being attracted to people's souls is not the same thing as being pansexual. Maybe she's presexual? I was working around a group of teenagers, and there was a couple - boy and girl - sort of necking in front of everyone. Then she announced for all to hear, "I'm pansexual." Which is fine, except I think she was using it as a badge of honor, like Jazz thinks it's cool to be attracted to souls instead of, you know, actual human bodies.

She was chosen, I believe, because 1. She was a virgin. 2. She was pretty, sweet, shy, and somewhat informed. That's not a knock, it's just that she was young, and at the time seemed malleable. And 3. She was a virgin.

We saw "Darkest Hour" last week. Churchill had been a supporter of Edward VII, and sided with him. (The film only covers May 1940.) King George is depicted, though no one else in the family are in it - aside from a cameo by a Corgi! From watching this show and other films and documentaries, I have such warm feelings for George - he seems like such a good, upright fellow, doting father, and dedicated, committed, compassionate ruler. After the movie was over, I heard the audience chattering about The Crown - evidently a lot of people made the same connections I did.

I wonder if Jazz has any sexual feeling when she sees an attractive guy or an attractive girl? (Of course by attractive I mean handsome, beautiful, hunky, etc.) If she is getting female hormones, does she have the same sensations as a cis teenage girl? I'm not asking which one she prefers, just if she gets those flushes and tingles that I got when I had crushes in high school. (I'm 68, those flushes and crushes are very sparse these days.)

But her religion was invented by an ancestor so he could divorce one woman...etc. There isn't even any dispute about the beginnings of The Church of England - the history is very well known. What is there to believe in, other than the right of a sovereign to divorce?

She may not have had the sharpest mind, but I think over the years she had a kind of emotional intelligence - starting around the time she, shockingly for the time, touched a person with AIDS. Had she lived, I think she would have made a substantial mark on the world.

I can see the first 2 having a defined role, but there are so many more to come! I know I won't be able to keep them straight. Is this series going to show her entire reign? At a year or two per season, it's going to take a long time to get to the 20th century. Are they planning to recast Victoria like they're doing with Elizabeth?

Dr. Ting said, "groin" which is not the inside of the abdominal cavity. I think he's confused! Do older teens really go to those clay studios? I thought that was an activity for 9 -12 year olds, tops. When they are talking about the BMI, are they talking about the female scale or the male? There are two different charts because males tend to have more muscle tissue. I don't even know if BMI is used for teens, because it was originally formulated for adults (many years ago. Have the charts ever been updated?)

Since they seem to be talking about the peritoneal tissue (from her abdominal?) I wondered how that is going to substitute for vaginal tissue? It's taking tissue from one part of the body and giving it a purpose that it was not designed for. Does it somehow "become" vaginal tissue after the surgery?

I was searching for a description of Mumbly Albert but Emo works, too. He is exceedingly unattractive at this point. And why was Victoria so thrilled to be pregnant again? I thought that she hated pregnancy and childbirth, although she seems to like toddler girls better than babies. I wonder when she will start dreading her missed periods?

We saw "Darkest Hour" with Gary Oldman today and it's quite interesting that having seen two seasons of The Crown, this series, plus other documentaries, how informed the audience was. Afterwards I heard other people referencing this Anglophilic Era that we're going through. (And the luminous Lily James is in it, bringing in the Downton vibe as well.) So much of what happened in the 1930s and 40s is presaged by the family dynamics of Victoria and Albert. I think King George VI may have been the most noble, finest descendant of their Royal family.

That's a lot of cutting and pasting and sewing. Will she eventually get pleasure from it? This sounds painful and I'm not sure what she expects the outcome to be.

Bertie was 60-ish when he became King? Has any other heir had to wait as long as Prince Chuck? He much have great genes for longevity but he'll be 70 this year and in the US he'd be on Medicare, collecting Social Security and enjoying retirement. (For context, my boyfriend, who will be 72 this year, retired from his job with a nice pension at 56.)

The problem with historical fiction is that they will throw in enough truth to make it seem like history, so people tend to believe it's all true. The more curious among us go directly to reference sources to point out the fiction, while the less curious will accept it all as fact. It is frustrating, but I like the spectacle and pomp, pretty people and pretty clothes. I can fact-checker when it's over.

Two weddings and a baby! A great year for the Royal family and Anglophiles like me!